Lost City

The Lost City is an area of incredible archeological interest, located in eastern Venezuela. Believed to have been constructed by an ancient, now unknown tribe, the Lost City was for decades considered a myth.

Legends abounded of a city built beneath the Tumucumaque Uplands. These legends were boosted by the presence of magnificent stoneworks, including enormous faces carved from rocky outcroppings. Some of these faces were more than two hundred and fifty feet high, and several of these are more than five hundred feet from the valleys below. These enormous carvings are a popular tourist destination, although there is considerable danger to unarmed zeppelins given the remoteness of the region.

History
In 1522, Spain began the colonization of what would become Venezuela. Five years later, an exploration party under Diego de Losada recorded their discovery of the Lost City.

He recorded: "Eight days passed before we crossed the ridge, but great were the marvels that we beheld. Vast stone faces carved from the living rock leered at us. The natives retreated to their largest temples, atop the central mesa. It took another day for us to reach them. Hurling imprecations and calling on their dark gods, the people shut themselves away and threw stones. Tamanaco [Losada's guide] tells me that they were calling for their gods, the 'Lords of the Air' to be vomited forth from the foul visages that ring this valley. Their prayers went unanswered. We left no survivors."

Despite de Losada's claim that no villagers survived, local legends persisted that the Lords of the Air inhabited the mountains, and that the statues were somehow connected with these Lords. No evidence beyond the presence of the statues was forthcoming to confirm these legends, and they recieved no special attention from the academic world. Adherents of the legend were often compared to those who believed in El Dorado, Paititi or Camelot.

Rediscovery
In 1938, Professor John Hancock, long considered a crackpot for his firm belief in the existence of the Lost City, was conducting a series of surveys around the village de Losada destroyed. He discovered a large stone structure, which he believed was supposed to support a large golden disc referred to in the diaries of Alfredo Garciá, a member of de Losada's party. This disc, called the Sun Circle, was apparently destroyed by de Losada in an attempt to remove it, and the party's guide said that this act was blamed for the non-appearance of the Lords of the Air. Hancock determined to find the Sun Circle, believing it still lay in the valleys surrounding the village.

He was aided in his investigations by the unexpected arrival of two groups - the German-sponsored Die Spinne and their nemeses, the Fortune Hunters. Using secret documents possessed only by the Third Reich, Die Spinne had discovered a secret entrance to the true Lost City - a vast underground cave complex. Professor Hancock was right - the Sun Circle did exist, and it was the key to accessing that complex. With the aid of the Fortune Hunters, Hancock was able to restore the Sun Circle and perform the ritual to access the city.

The entrance to the city was behind the mouth of the largest statue, a fact that had eluded scientists for centuries. The ancient defences closed the mouth behind the first explorer to venture within - the intrepid Nathan Zachary. Zachary proceeded to make several monumental discoveries.

The cave complex was vast, the corridors at least a hundred feet across and two hundred feet tall. The walls were lined with brick, and vast booby traps still functional after centuries of neglect. Most noticable were carved faces that vomited fire, and enormous stone hammers, each weighing over a thousand tonnes, that swung back and forth.

While Zachary was able to enter the complex and reach the Die Spinne base within, he was not able to prevent the evil Doctor Von Essen from triggering charges designed to hide the evidence of his presence. While Zachary survived Von Essen's attempt at high-explosive murder, untold damage was done to the Lost City. Professor Hancock's team have spent the years following that incident cataloguing what little remains of one of the most intriguing discoveries of our time.

Implications
The sheer size, scale and placement of the Lost City show that whoever the "Lords of the Air" were, they possessed a degree of technological sophistication far in advance of our own. Certainly, they were capable of sustained flight, as it is unthinkable that there would be any other way to navigate the complex beneath the mountains.

While some have claimed the Lost City as proof of extraterrestrial involvement in ancient history, this theory is not the only explanation. Professor Hancock himself maintains that, with ingenuity and technical expertise, none of the wonders of the Lost City are beyond the grasp of humanity.